Intricately Tiny Figure Paintings, With Christian Fagerlund

Intricately Tiny Figure Paintings, With Christian Fagerlund

Summary

Michelle welcomes figure painter Christian Fagerlund to Episode 10 of The Cultured Podcast for what turns out to be a mesmerizing conversation about painting the human body. Christian is an oil painter who has focused on depicting the human form for 25 years.

Christian’s intuitive, rather than analytical, approach enables him to capture each subject’s energetic essence, rather than simply transcribing what his eyes see. That essence is what Christian believes brings a figurative painting to life, and his work provides ample evidence of that.

What’s more, most of his incredibly realistic renditions are small-scale, the smallest measuring around 1.5 inches by 2.5 inches! This kind of minute detail results in a process of nuanced painting that takes between 30-60 hours per artwork.

But how does an artist achieve self expression when painting someone else’s figure?

Christian gives us a fascinating look into how every decision he makes, from directing the photo shoot that yields the reference for his paintings, to the brush strokes he uses, to his conceptual vision for every work. As Christian puts it, his focus for every piece is to showcase contrast in all of its beautiful forms. Whether contrast comes to life in lighting, texture, color or hue, Christian brings this theme to the forefront of all of this works.

About Christian Fagerlund, Figure Painter

Christian Fagerlund was born in Ann Arbor, MI. He received his BA from the University of California – Santa Barbara in 1994, and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2004, where he received the NYAA Postgraduate Fellowship. He currently teaches at the University of North Texas as Senior Lecturer of Figure Drawing/Painting. He was the artist-in-residence at Eden Rock Gallery (2009, 2010, 2011) and SpaceSBH Gallery (2016) on the island of St. Barths. Since 2004 his work has been shown both nationally and internationally in several solo and group exhibitions. He currently shows work with Liliana Bloch Gallery in Dallas, and Winfield Gallery in Carmel CA. His next major exhibition will be a two-person show with South Korean artist Mi-Hee Nahm at Liliana Bloch Gallery in May 2018.